Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Sent to Siberia
By M. Giant | Season 14 | Episode 4 | Aired on 03.08.2009
"How can four smart guys and the rest of us not be able to figure this out?" Mel laments. And then the camera pans from where he's conferring with the other Racers on a street corner, to the very fence with the "Repairs Needed" sign attached to it. In other frustration news, Luke has busted out his pen and paper to try to work this out. Back in the village, Mel says, "I'm suspicious." Has someone finally noticed in real time that an Amazing Camera is doing some ironic panning? Mike suddenly leads everyone back in the right direction, and Mel breaks into a run when he spots the sign. "Oh, fuck," he says (I think), and then calls out to everyone, "It's here!" They all load their shutters into he yard, uniformly disgusted with themselves. And rightfully so. But especially Mark and Michael.
Luke makes another attempt, asking Margie, "Have other teams arrived?" She tells him not to worry about that. And he's gotten it right anyway. He hugs the guide lady and they get their Pit Stop clue in fourth place. In the parking lot, they encounter Team Go Team, whom they give directions up the hill to the bobsled course. In the taxi, Luke tearfully tells his mother that he's happy to have gotten through that leg. "It was very hard." Margie says she thinks they're fourth, and that she's proud of him. Aw.
Jaime's taking this for the cheerleaders, on the grounds that she's a good reader. Off she goes down the bobsled course, and we're back into a brief period where I know which of them is whom.
Mike and Mel finish installing their shutters first, and a lovely woman in elaborate traditional garb emerges from the decrepit little house to give them their clue. Mark and Michael are right behind them, and Amanda and Kris are left behind in last. "Oh, crap, they've already been U-Turned!" Mike says when he spots the sign at the museum. On their way to their cab, they update the arriving Stuntmen, who agree, "That sucks." In the cab, with his hair looking like Earl Hickey's, Mike says Kris and Amanda will have to redo the log task, "And I think that'll just crush 'em." Especially given that they're already in last place. Sure enough, they're not happy to see their faces on the U-Turn sign. "Shady," Amanda says. "Shady, shady," Kris corrects. So it's back to the woodpile for them. "What conniving people," Amanda says as they go back down the gangplank. "We have been nothing but so nice to everyone." I know they're upset, but you know who else got screwed? That lovely owner of that crappy little house, which needed eight sets of shutters and only got three. She's going to have a long, cold winter.